What is a mouse model?
The ability to model human disease in the mouse makes it such a valuable experimental system. Genetically and genomically, the human and the mouse are very similar.
What is a mouse model?
No, no, no — it’s not a mouse walking down the runway at Fashion Week!
In architecture, a “model” is a representation of a building. In mice, a “model” is a representation of a human disease or syndrome.
Mice share more than 95% of our DNA — and this means that we’re both affected by disease in surprisingly similar ways.
By studying mice that have symptoms of diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, or cancer, we can learn a lot more about how these diseases might be treated in patients.
The quest for the best mouse model — or best “representation” — of a disease is always ongoing. The closer we are to accurately modeling genetic diseases in the mouse, the closer we are to discovering cures in the clinic.
Research Highlight
February 10, 2020
